Yesterday, Silver Fern Farms Ltd released its full-year results which showed revenue was $3.3 billion, up from $2.7 billion, and ebitda, including share of associate earnings was $301.3 million, up from $179.7 million.
Silver Fern Farms Co-operative, which jointly owns Silver Fern Farms Ltd with Chinese-owned Shanghai Maling Aquarius, increased its after-tax profit from $51.5 million to $94.1 million.
In a statement, chief executive Simon Limmer said the year’s performance had confirmed the company’s market led strategy was the ‘‘right one’’ and had laid the foundation for the largest and most transformative investment programme in its 75-year history.
That programme was across all its 14 processing sites and a broad range of projects which would modernise core business systems and ways of working, Mr Limmer said.
‘‘With $96million of capital investment in 2022, and even more planned in the next few years, we are doubling down on our commitment to meeting the needs of the end consumer by investing in our markets, infrastructure and organisational capability,’’ he said.
There was some ageing infrastructure as some of the company’s processing sites dated back 140 years. A $11.2 million investment was spent at its Finegand site, near Balclutha, last year on an automated lamb processing system, and there had also been a ‘‘significant’’ spend at its Belfast site.
While the current scale of the company’s Net Carbon Zero product — Net Carbon Zero beef was launched in the United States last year — was still relatively small compared to the overall size of the business, it represented a direction of travel of much more significance for the company, he said.
Co-operative chairman Rob Hewett said the financial result reflected the business’s ongoing orientation towards the end consumer, and the co-operative had been focused on ensuring farmer suppliers shared in the risk and reward of the operating company’s market performance.
The first half of 2022 brought record returns for its farmer suppliers. The operating company’s ability to navigate risks in the market better than expected enabled more than $21 million of reward payments to suppliers, over and above the record schedule pricing and other payments they received, he said.
The co-operative board was focused on striking the right balance between immediate returns to shareholders and allowing for the necessary investment needed to create more enduring value.
The accumulative dividend payments of 23.2c per share and patronage reward of 21.6c per share for 2022 were the highest yield in the company’s history, Mr Hewett said.
While the latter part of 2022 onwards had presented a stark change in market conditions, which had impacted both farmer and company returns, the board was confident about the near-term recovery of prices. It was not expecting that to be at the same record levels of last year.
• Four candidates are seeking election for two positions as farmer-elected directors - Rodney Booth, Will Clarke, Simon Davies and Anna Nelson. Voting closes on April 26.
